


Tooth and Claw

by Geist



Category: Homestuck, MS Paint Adventures
Genre: Arguing, Bathing/Washing, Biting, Blood, Blow Jobs, Camping, Cunnilingus, F/M, Fighting, Fingerfucking, Flushed Romance | Matesprits, Gentle Sex, Hunters & Hunting, Muscles, Oral Sex, Pale Romance | Moirallegiance, Peeping, Robots, Rough Sex, Scratching, Sex, Size Difference, Size Kink, Sparring, Teasing, Travel, Violence, exercise
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-12-28
Updated: 2013-12-28
Packaged: 2018-01-06 12:52:42
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 18,259
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1107057
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Geist/pseuds/Geist
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>He fights in a civilised war. She lives in savage peace. Their worlds have been parted for too long.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Tooth and Claw

**Author's Note:**

  * Translation into Русский available: [Зуб и Коготь (Tooth and Claw by Geist)](https://archiveofourown.org/works/2080587) by [Mr_Scapegrace](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mr_Scapegrace/pseuds/Mr_Scapegrace)



Alternia is a harsh world. If you stay out in the daytime for more than a few minutes your skin – even if it's the tough skin of the world's inhabitants – begins to burn and slough away. Blindness occurs after seconds of direct exposure to the angry sun, and in the hotter regions the land blisters and cracks under it. Muddy clay turns ceramic, transforming kilometres upon kilometres into fields of fractured, fractal shapes.

Trolls travel at night. Some have vehicles that can cross half the planet before the twin moons sink beneath the horizon. Others walk. Nepeta is among those. She has a body honed by the rigours of her life in the wild and a mind that, though curious and lively, is inured to the boredom of travel When the sun comes out, she throws a reflective cloth over herself and does her best to sleep. For a long time now, she's been without the sopor slime other trolls use to suppress their violent racial memories. The nightmares mostly don't bother her any more.

*

The sun-scarred plain became a desert, and Nepeta stepped into a landscape of dunes and shifting sands that sapped her energy to traverse. The night stayed warm for a few hours, then the temperature dropped and biting winds howled across the trackless wastes. Nepeta bowed her head against the gale, wrapped a scarf around her mouth and nose to keep the sand out and pressed on. The stars were bright overhead. She amused herself by picking out the constellations she knew and inventing new ones, until they faded and the sun shot its first deadly volleys over the line where sky and land met. Nepeta curled up under her cloak and hid from the light.

The howl of some night creature woke her. She stood and stamped her feet to get her circulation going, then walked on. Nepeta never trudged. Even when the hunting was thin and her food supplies were lean, Nepeta never trudged. She walked, lightly and gracefully, knowing that the means to preserve herself would present itself sooner or later, and that if it didn't it was far too late to worry. Another species would have called it optimism. Wild trolls like Nepeta called it survival.

Another night of travel saw Nepeta at the base of the mesa upon which her moirail lived. A deep valley ran through it, but it was futile to go that way. There was nothing down there but dust, ancient spiderwebs and possible death for the unwary. Instead, Nepeta found a set of well-worn handholds in the rock and began to climb.

She reached the top of the cliff and tumbled over. Panting, she exhilarated in her victory over gravity then stood up and walked on. The mesa was a pleasure to walk across after the desert, and she made good time. She kept away from the mesa's rift, fearful of being blown into it by the fierce gusts that sometimes swept the plain.

Two more hours of travel brought her in sight of her destination. A pair of immense castles glowered at each other across the ravine. The one on her side was the one she was interested in. The other could be (relatively) safely ignored. She'd never had much to do with its owner, and didn't see any particular reason to change that.

Dawn broke before she could reach her destination and was forced to huddle under her cloak again. Impatiently, she waited for the sun to complete its arc. When it did, and when there was enough moonlight for her to see by, she hurried on. It wasn't long before the castle towered above her.

*

Equius Zahhak had gone out to greet the dusk. He stood on his balcony and watched the sun set. At this hour its rays were diffuse enough to be harmless, and he liked the way the day's remaining warmth felt and the way it receded into the desert chill he was used to.

The shadows deepened over all that Equius called his domain. Domain was a loose term; what could he do with this barren land other than send his robots out on scouting forays every so often? It wasn't truly his, either. Any troll could have built their own hive on the mesa. He glanced across at his neighbour's fortress. One had. Nonetheless, his territorial instincts were piqued when the moons came up over the distant dunes. In their serene light he saw a tiny dot stir and move in the direction of his castle. He frowned, left the balcony and headed downstairs to the main gate.

So it was that Nepeta got a response almost immediately after knocking on the vast, imposing castle doors. A hatch slid open and a pair of suspicious eyes peered out from behind cracked sunglasses. The suspicion vanished and was replaced by the usual concern and condescension Equius employed when dealing with his moirail.

“Nepeta!” he said. “What are you doing out here? Come inside at once.” He unbolted the door and heaved it open.

“Equius!”

Nepeta took a flying leap at him with her arms outstretched and rebounded off his chest. She rocked back on her heels, recovered, and pulled him into a more traditional hug. He stood stock still with his arms to his sides, as he always did when she got friendly.

“Nepeta,” he said when she released him. “Why are you here?”

She pouted. “I came to see my meowrail, of course!”

“But why?”

“So we can do meowrail stuff! Like hanging out and chatting and stopping each other from doing murders.”

“I do not need to be prevented from committing murders,” Equius said. “And I do not have time to entertain you. Our Trollian chats should be more than sufficient for you.”

“We haven't chatted for a year now. Didn't you notice? My tablet finally broke, and I couldn't get a mew one. The drones won't listen to me any more. That's why I came to see you in purrson.”

“You should have been more careful. A good tablet is a strong device. It should last a lifetime. And of course the drones wouldn't listen to you.”

Nepeta frowned. “Why not?”

Equius was momentarily nonplussed. “Surely you've heard? The War of Just Usurpation?”

“Oh yeah. Umm. Sort of?”

“How could you not know – nevermind. Suffice it to say that my duties towards our new Empress keep me far too busy to see anyone.”

He turned away, evidently expecting Nepeta to leave. He felt guilty about not being a better host. She had come a long way, on foot and with only the meagre resources of a greenblood, but she really was rather trying.

He wasn't lying when he said he was busy, either. The war raged across troll space. The Empress Aspirant challenged the Condesce for a freer, more compassionate world. The Aspirant was loathe to waste the lives of fellow trolls, even those of the enemy, and so Equius had been put to the task of designing war robots. His machines got faster, stronger, alternately deadlier and better at live capture. Every few dozen nights he got glowing reports on their battle performance.

And every few dozen nights the same reports contained the number of casualties in the legions to which his robots were attached. The numbers were getting smaller. They were never small enough.

“My work is important,” he muttered.

“I get it,” Nepeta agreed, sombre for once, “but meowbe it's getting to you.”

“Preposterous.”

“Just let me stay a few nights. I can help.”

Equius snorted. “I doubt it. But... very well. You may stay.” She always did have a way of getting under his skin. She hadn't even needed to deploy the big eyes and quivering lip this time.

“Yay!”

“Come.”

She followed him, and he led her through a maze of passageways, galleries and twisting staircases lit by flickering sodium lights strung haphazardly along the walls and ceilings.

“Do you use all these rooms?” Nepeta asked, taking in the bare floors, the empty alcoves.

“No,” Equius said.

“Why not?”

“I have no time to make use of them. I work. I spar. I sleep.”

“You have to relax sometimes.”

They walked through a room piled high with spare robot parts. “As you can see, I do not. These are all prototypes. I must build them, refine them, test them in battle. The enemy does not relax, and neither do I.”

“I bet they do. And you should too. You won't be any good if you just work all the time.” She put her hand on his back. Even through his shirt she could feel the knots in his muscles. “You're really tense.”

“That's strength, not tension.”

They reached a small, circular room centred around a metal hatch set into the floor. It was secured with fearsome-looking catches, which Equius unsnapped with two booming clangs that echoed around the halls. He levered it up and let it fall back on its hinges with a crash. Nepeta peered down into the total blackness beneath.

“Where does it go?” she said.

“The servitor tunnels.”

“What's a servitor?”

“You'll see.”

They waited a few minutes. From the depths of the open tunnel, Nepeta heard a kind of clicking, chittering sound. Something like a grotesque, eyeless ant heaved itself up over the lip of the pit and clattered its mandibles at them. Nepeta squeaked and hid behind Equius.

“That's a servitor? I've never seen one before.”

“They have only recently been created,” Equius said. “To aid those involved in the war effort. It is something like a drone, but far more efficient.” To the servitor he said “I require a recuperacoon. Install it in the room next to mine.” The servitor clacked its mouthparts together again and disappeared down the hole. Equius closed the hatch and replaced the catches.

“Our Empress seems intent on disrupting the rightful hierarchy of blood,” Equius said. “When the war is won, even you will be able to call on the servitors. Even,” he concluded with distaste, “redbloods will.”

“That's good, right?”

“Perhaps.”

“Why are you helping if you're not sure?”

“Because she is my Empress,” Equis said. “She fights against a tyrant. She is right. I am not.”

“Maybe you're not right about working too hard, then.”

“You are not the Empress, Nepeta. You can't tell me I'm not right.”

Nepeta left it at that, and insisted on being shown the rest of the castle. It took longer than she'd expected. The place was vast, and even then it seemed to contain more rooms than it strictly should. Equius told her that most of them were empty and not worth looking at, but she kept darting down corridor after corridor so that he had to hurry to keep up with her. They stopped in the kitchen to rest and eat, then continued the tour. It took them almost until dawn to see everything, and Nepeta was yawning by the end of it.

“Ah, good,” Equius said. “Your respiteblock.” He pushed open a door and showed her in. There wasn't much inside: just a desk, a few ornaments and the recuperacoon Equius had ordered. The servitors must have installed it themselves, Nepeta assumed.

“You should sleep now,” Equius continued. “You are tired.”

“Yeah, I am kind of sleepy,” Nepeta said. “Good meowning, Equius. I'm glad I get to stay with you again.”

“Good morning, Nepeta.” Equius left and shut the door behind him. Nepeta climbed into the recuperacoon, immersed herself in the warm sopor slime and drifted off to sleep.

*

Equius made his way to his workshop. Robots in various states of construction and deconstruction leered at him from shelves and alcoves. He'd been working on making them look more terrifying, to strike fear into the heart of the enemy. Some were just hovering black orbs bristling with weaponry. Others were implacable death machines out of a nightmare, all spikes and blades and crushing claws. They were gaudy, to Equius' mind. He preferred function to form, but the battle statistics did not lie. Psychological warfare was effective.

He swept a pile of tools off his desk, booted up his computer and started up the chat client. It was a secure military connection, but it did bear some resemblance to the programs he and his fellows had used back in more peaceful times.

[CT] began strategising with [EA]

EA: -----EQUIUS!

CT: Your imperial majesty

CT: I prostrate myself before you

CT: You whose b100d is the highest of us all

EA: Are you done kissing my bass?

CT: Yes, majesty

EA: Good, you're getting better!

EA: And for glub's sake, )(ow long have we known eac)( ot)(er?

EA: Call me F-EF-ERI!

CT: Yes, F-EF-ERI!

EA: No, not – never mind.

EA: Sea anyt)(ing different about me?

CT: You have changed your handle

CT: I approve

CT: It is properly regal

EA: Well I glubbing don't.

EA: But Karkat insisted.

EA: )(e said I needed to 'project more gravitas'.

CT: He is a mutant upstart who should be executed for daring to question you

EA: -EQUIUS 38(

EA: T)(at was meant to be doing t)(e eye-rolly t)(ing.

EA: Is it doing t)(e eye-rolly t)(ing?

EA: It's not.

EA: Never mind.

EA: W)(at )(ave I told you about blood prejudice?

CT: That it is no longer acceptable

EA: T)(at's rig)(t.

EA: SO!

EA: How are t)(e robots going?

CT: Very well

CT: The STRENGTH of my fervor for our cause pushes me to work at 100% of my capability

CT: But

CT: Nepeta is here

EA: Your moirail? GR-------EAT! Say )(i to )(er for me.

CT: It is not great

CT: She will interfere with my work

CT: She claims I need to take a break

EA: I )(ate to sail it, -Equius, but maybe you do.

EA: You've been slowing down. I t)(ink you need time to rest.

EA: It's good t)(at Nepeta came along! Take some time off. )(ave fun with )(er!

CT: But Feferi, the war

EA: We're winning. We've got w)(ole sc)(ools of factories producing your designs.

EA: You won't be any good to me if you make yourself eel.

EA: Take a break. T)(at's an order!

CT: Empress, please

EA: A)(, dam. Sorry -Equius something's come up! Gotta go.

[EA] ceased strategising with [CT]

Equius groaned, turned off the computer, and looked around at the robots. Now they'd go without being completed for however many nights he was supposed to stay away from them. Feferi would know if he'd disobeyed her command, not that he would. He cracked his knuckles distractedly and cursed himself for bringing up Nepeta.

*

The next evening Nepeta, woke, stretched and crawled out of her recuperacoon. The sopor slime slid smoothly off her skin and clothes, rejoining the mass to be cleaned, processed, recycled and refreshed. She felt incredibly well rested. Perhaps it was the comfort of a recuperacoon after having been without one for so long. The usual trollish dreams had troubled her out in the desert, and while she was better than most at going without the calming effects of sopor slime, it could only be a matter of time before psychosis set in.

She peered at herself in a cracked mirror that leaned precariously against the wall, ran a hand through her hair and smiled. She left the room and knocked on the door next to hers.

“Equiuuuuus? Are you awake?”

There was no response. Nepeta shrugged and made her way to the kitchen, where she helped herself to a few pieces of fruit and some of Equius' vegetarian snacks. She was beginning to miss fresh meat, and wondered if there was anything to hunt in the desert. She still had a few sticks of the jerky that she'd eaten during her journey squirrelled away in her coat pockets, and contented herself with one of them before she went searching for him.

His workshop was empty, so Nepeta investigated the gym next. Equius had shown it to her the previous night. It had mostly consisted of oversized weights and a cage filled with yet more dismembered robots. His sparring partners tended to have very short lifespans.

As she got closer, she began to hear the odd clang and crash, interspersed with Equius' yells. Nepeta reached the gym and stepped inside. As she'd expected, he was in a pitched battle with one of his machines. She watched as it took a lethal swipe at his' head. He ducked, but not quickly enough, and it impacted his shoulder and sent him sprawling. Nepeta gasped. The robot clanked over to Equius and raised its foot to crush him.

He rolled just in time, and the robot's stomp dented the steel floor. Equius sprang back up, clutching his shoulder and trying to work some life back into it. The robot turned to face him, but before it could attack again Equius kicked out at its leg. His foot shattered its knee and it slumped, then caught itself on the other leg. Servos whirring, it half-dragged itself, half hopped towards him. It was slowed, but far from stopped.

The robot struck at Equius, but its programming obviously wasn't compensating for its damage. It stumbled in the middle of the blow. Equius caught it by the arm and hurled it to the ground. While it struggled to right itself, he got it in a joint lock and with his muscles straining and his teeth gritted, tore off its arm. He leapt up and away as the robot, realising it was all but beaten, went into one final desperate attack. Emitting a teeth-grating howl of metal on metal, it hauled itself upright and flailed wildly at him with its remaining arm. It got him in the chest and solar plexus, and Nepeta winced at the sound of steel slamming into flesh.

Equius staggered back, wheezing. He drew himself upright, forced air into his lungs, roared and went berserk. He swung the arm he'd stolen from the robot like a bat, knocking the machine down. It rolled over onto its front and tried to crawl away, but he leapt on it and brought the arm crashing down. He inflicted dent after dent on the robot, wielding the arm like the axe of some ancient barbarian lord. He grabbed the back of the feebly struggling robot's head in one mighty hand, yanked it up and slammed it into the floor. The robot emitted an electronic scream. He bashed it against the ground until at last, with the pop and crackle of irreversibly damaged circuits, it shut down and went still and silent.

Equius stood, panting, and dropped the arm on his defeated foe. He went over to the corner of the cage and picked up a fresh white towel from a stack of them there. He mopped his face. Only then did he hear clapping coming from the edge of the ring.

“Ah, Nepeta,” he said. “I hope my ferocity didn't frighten you. I find it helpful to work out my strength and aggression on my lesser creations.”

“You didn't frighten me,” Nepeta said. “You were ameowzing! You've gotten even better at fighting.”

“Hmmph. If I was so good I wouldn't have been hit. He lifted his vest and prodded at the livid blue bruises forming on his torso. Nepeta couldn't help but notice that his muscles looked so much more sculpted than the last time she'd seen him, and he hadn't been flabby then. He caught her looking and quickly lowered his top, breaking into a fresh sweat. Nepeta had to suppress a giggle when he turned around for another towel.

“So can I fight one?” Nepeta asked him when he was dry and out of the cage.

“Absolutely not. One blow from these would take your head off.”

“But I'm faster than you. They wouldn't even hit me.”

“That is not a risk I'm going to take,” Equius said, “and neither should you.”

“Awww.” She widened her eyes and tried out an endearing head tilt. “Purrleeeease?”

“No.”

She muttered “Killjoy,” and returned her head to its normal angle. “Are you going to work on your robots tonight?”

“Thanks to you,” Equius said sourly, “I am not. I made the mistake of repeating what you said about me working too hard to the Empress. It seems she agrees. I have been ordered to take a break.”

“Hey, that's great! What are you going to do with your time off?”

“Spar.”

“Oh. Can I watch?”

Nepeta was allowed to watch, and cheered for Equius as he smashed an endless succession of steel opponents. She made herself useful by fetching him food, drinks and fresh towels and he, despite himself, found himself warming to her presence. It was almost like having his lusus back, albeit a lusus who very rarely stopped chattering at him.

They passed the next night like that. The night after that, Nepeta found that the attraction of waiting on him was beginning to pall. She wandered around the gym, poked distractedly at the exercise equipment and tried to lift Equius' impossibly heavy weights.

“Equius?” she called.

Equius backhanded his current sparring partner. Its head came flying off, and he turned and said “Yes?” as it crumpled behind him.

“If you don't want me fighting your robots, why don't you make me one I can fight? Maybe make it faster, but weaker. Then it'd suit me!”

“Interesting,” he said. “I've never considered building robots for the lower orders – with one exception, I suppose. It would have to be quite weak to accommodate their feeble bodies.”

“Hey-”

“Though the blows it would take would be so much weaker, so no need for much armour.”

“Eq-”

“And it wouldn't need nearly as much processing power, given the natural lowblood tendency towards reduced intelligence.”

“EQUIUS!” Nepeta yelled.

“Hmm?”

“Shut up!” She could feel the blood he was insulting burning hot in her cheeks.

“Are you commanding me?” Equius said, surprised at the fury in her voice.

“Yes! I'm telling you to be quiet!”

“Could you...do it again?”

“Ugh! Look, I'm not weak. And I'm defurnitely – definitely not stupid, okay? You're such an arrogant grubfucker. Fur – forget about the robot. I'll leave tomorrow evening” Nepeta swept out of the room. Equius just stood there, stunned into silence by her outburst.

*

Nepeta sat sulking in her respiteblock. She'd shocked herself with the intensity of the anger she'd felt. Equius said things about lowbloods all the time. It wasn't as though she liked him saying it, but she'd always been able to brush it off before. This time, though, it felt personal. Perhaps it was because she hadn't seen him in the flesh for so long. Or perhaps it was due to Feferi's egalitarian reforms. Nepeta heard only a minuscule amount of news out in the wilds, but she heard enough. She liked the idea of not being pushed around by her 'betters'. She certainly wasn't going to take it from Equius. She hated him for what he'd said.

No. Not that. Every scrap of media his lusus had brought to him when he was young must have been about how the higher blood castes were naturally superior to the ones below. How redbloods served brownbloods and brownbloods served yellowbloods and so on and so on, all the way up to the Condesce, who was harsh and strict but certainly not a psychopathic tyrant. It must have seemed like such an attractive philosophy. A place for everyone, and everyone in their place.

And then, when he was a little older and had started to interact with other trolls, his worldview would have smashed straight into reality. No wonder he'd tried to salvage what pieces he could of it. No wonder he was how he was. He'd never been given the chance not to be prejudiced. It definitely wasn't hate Nepeta felt for him.

She brooded on this for a long while, only leaving her block to get food when she was sure Equius wasn't about. Eventually, sunlight started creeping in through the UV-resistant windows. Nepeta was preparing to sleep when she heard what sounded like a battering ram crashing against her door. Equius. Knowing him, he probably thought he was gently tapping it.

“Nepeta?” he said through the door. Outside, he muttered to himself “I cannot believe I'm saying this to a lowblood.” He raised his voice again and said “I'm...sorry for what I said. I'm sorry I was rude to you.”

The door opened a crack, and a green eye peered out. “You are?” Nepeta said.

“Yes. I am. Very sorry.”

The door opened all the way. Nepeta flung her arms around Equius and hugged him as tightly as she could, burying her face in his chest. “Aww, I accept your apawlogy. And I'm sorry for yowling at you.”

“You are forgiven.”

Nepeta let go of Equius, and they stood around awkwardly for a few seconds. Nepeta shuffled her feet. Equius cleared his throat and said, “I have something to show you, if you're not too tired.”

“Ooh! What is it?”

“You'll see.”

He led her to his workshop. Inside, the morning sun glinted off the polished chassis of a brand new robot.

“Is that mine?” Nepeta asked.

“It is.”

“You made it even though I said I'd leave?”

“I was hoping,” Equius said, “that if I did you wouldn't.” 

“I won't! It's incredible!”

Nepeta prowled around the robot. It was much sleeker and shiner than Equius' usual models. It was smaller, true, but it looked far faster and more graceful. Its eyes glowed green rather than red, and were almond-shaped. It even had a rough facsimile of Nepeta's horns.

“Does it work?” she said. She stepped in front of it and raised her hands.

“Nepeta, wait!”

The robot dropped into a fighting stance. Faster than Nepeta could blink, it socked her in the gut and sent her sprawling. Equius automatically sprang to her aid, then stopped himself and hovered anxiously.

“Are you okay?” he asked.

“I'm fine,” she wheezed. She got to her feet and took a breath. “Whew. It's fast.”

“You did say you wanted it to be.”

“I know. But maybe a little slower until I get used to it.”

“That can be arranged. Ah yes. You will need exercise clothes.” Equius looked at Nepeta, taking in her ratty old coat and the trousers with the ridiculous tail sewn to them that she still insisted on wearing. He went to his computer and accessed a shopping site. “Come and choose something. The servitors will deliver them by tomorrow.”

“You don't have to buy anything for me,” she said.

“I have the authority to requisition them. Nobody will notice.”

“Oh! Well that's okay then.”

Nepeta looked over Equius' shoulder and looked over the array of clothes he'd found. She got him to click on the ones she liked, rejecting some and mentally sorting others into the 'maybe' pile until...

“That one.”

“Are you sure?” The outfit was, to Equius' mind, far too tight and skimpy, consisting of a midriff-baring tank-top and shorts that lived up to their name. He felt his pores prickling.

“Yep!”

“Very well,” he said, sounding rather strangulated. “Go and rest. I'll order them for you.”

“Okay. See you in the evening. Thanks!”

“Not at all.”

Nepeta skipped out, and when she was gone, Equius wiped the back of his hand across his forehead, sluicing off a shower of perspiration. He found another outfit that was in a similar style but used a lot more material and placed the order.

*

The clothes arrived the next morning, couriered in the jaws of a servitor. Nepeta loved them, and didn't appear to notice Equius' last-minute switch. They were still far too revealing for his taste, but at least they didn't make him lose two pounds in sweat every time he looked at her.

In the gym, Equius set up a place for her to spar. Nepeta couldn't help but notice that he'd laid down an awful lot of padding, but she let it pass. She found it difficult to adjust her footing at first, but soon got used to it and treated it as an exercise in fighting on uncertain ground. 

The robot had no such problems. It danced and weaved around her, moving with such fluidity that she sometimes forgot it was a machine. She knew Equius used biological parts in his machines, but she didn't realised he'd progressed so far. It took her two nights just to learn how to hit it, and she ended up bruised all over before she did. Even after that it wasn't a pushover. It adapted to her, learned how to react to her moves. She had to constantly change up her style to get the edge on it.

Eventually though, she got the measure of it. It reacted realistically to her attacks, and she ended up with it on the floor more than it her.

“It's getting too easy,” she complained to Equius one night.

He was fighting two robots. He tore the head off one and punched through the torso of another, squeezing its biomechanical power source into paste.

“Yes,” he said. “I'm finding mine less challenging. I can't think of any way of making them stronger.” He sighed heavily. “The same applies to my war robots.”

“Ooh! I know what we should do,” said Nepeta, hopping up and down. “We should go hunting!”

“Hunting? How will that help? Quite apart from the fact that murdering noble beasts is very wrong.”

“Ever hear about the shrieking behemoth? Well, it's not noble. It's big, and fast, and it's got loads of sharp teeth-” she bared her own “-and it's the deadliest thing in the forests!”

“And you think we should hunt one?”

“Yes!” she chirped. “We can beat it between us!”

Equius was prepared to dismiss the foolish idea out of hand, but some of Nepeta's enthusiasm infected him. “It might be worthwhile to observe such a dangerous brute up close, I suppose.”

Nepeta spoke seriously. “We won't just be watching it. Could you kill one, if you had to?”

“I would have to, if it was necessary to prevent it from injuring you.”

“Good enough! Wanna do it?”

“Very well. But only for research, not because I thirst for the blood of innocent creatures.”

Nepeta cheered. “Alright! When do we leave?”

“I will order some supplies.”

*

Equius' supplies fit into one huge rucksack. He refused to let Nepeta carry anything except for the few belongings she'd arrived with, even though he was carrying food and water for the both of them. She was used to shouldering her own burdens, though, and when he wasn't looking she moved a few of the less noticeable things into her own pack.

One of his robots locked up when they left. The sound of the main gate's huge bars and bolts shooting into place sounded very final. Ahead, the mesa shimmered as it gave up its heat to the night air.

“Will they open the gates when we get back?” Nepeta asked.

“They should,” Equius said. “If they do not, it will not be too hard to break the doors down.”

“You haven't had them lock up before?”

“I haven't left the castle in quite some time.”

“Oh. Well, nyow you have! Follow me.”

Equius found following a greenblood odd and not entirely unwelcome. They retraced Nepeta's steps as quickly as they could and managed to climb to the bottom of the mesa before daybreak. He took something that looked like a tight bundle of reflective cloth out of his pack. He put it on the ground and prodded it with the toe of his boot. Instantly, it unfolded and started assembling itself into a tent. Nepeta watched in amazement. Her protective cloak looked very primitive now. Nonetheless, she unfurled it and crawled beneath it. She peeked out and watched the tent put the finishing touches to itself.

When it was done, Equius said, “Nepeta, you do not have to – that is, sleeping under that rag – you may... you may share the tent with me.” He cleared his throat. “If you wish. It is somewhat improprietous, I know.”

“I'd love to. Thanks!”

The tent's inner membrane emitted a faint blue bioluminescence. It was bright enough to let them see what they were doing, but not so bright that it would interfere with sleep. Nepeta laid herself down and prepared to do just that.

“I do have these, too,” he said before she could drop off.

Nepeta sat up. Equius was holding two rolls of some sort of membranous material. “What are they?”

“Sopor sacks. They secrete a thin layer of sopor slime over your skin. It's not quite as good as a recuperacoon, but more comfortable than the ground. You may not want to use one, though.”

“Why not? They sound great.”

“You need to be naked for it to work.”

“That's fine. Just look the other way, I'll get in, then I won't be able to see you.”

“Yes. Of Course. Sensible.” He passed her one of the sacks. There was a pause.

“You're still looking.”

“Ah. Right.” Blushing and sweating, he turned to face the tent's wall. He heard the rustling of her clothes coming off, then the organic sound of the sack being unfurled and her shuffling herself into it.

“Okay, I'm in,” came her voice. Equius began to turn around. “Nyooo, wait! How do I seal it?” He whipped his head back and stared fixedly at the wall.

“Run your fingers down the seam and pinch it together,” he said.

“Okay, now I'm in. Morning, Equius.”

“Good morning, Nepeta.” Sweating furiously, he undressed himself and got into his own sopor sack.

*

Nepeta woke, saw the dull brown interior of the sopor sack and for a moment thought she was being suffocated. The membrane had fallen across her mouth and nose during the day, but it was fully breathable, and after a moment or two of disorientation Nepeta realised this. She pushed at the sack's seam and found how to make it split open. She sat up and stretched.

Equius had awoken a minute earlier. He was just preparing to climb out of his sack when he saw Nepeta emerge from hers, still glistening with the remnants of its slime. His eyes swivelled of their own accord to stare at her breasts. They were pert and perfect. Like the rest of her a voice whispered from somewhere deep in his hindbrain. It was right. She was everything he admired about the beasts of the wild: speed, strength, grace, all wrapped up in one small, energetic package. She. Is. Your. Moirail! his conscience ranted. Stop looking at her like that.

The internal dialogue was cut short when Nepeta saw him looking her way. She eeped and covered herself with her arm.

“Sorry, sorry,” Equius muttered, averting his eyes again.

When she was dressed, Nepeta asked Equius “Are you getting up now?”

“Um, I think I will stay here a moment more.”

Nepeta left the tent, and Equius was safely able to extricate himself from his sopor sack. He got dressed, rolled up their bedding and went outside. They folded up the tent, packed it away and carried on into the desert until the mesa disappeared into the distance. Another night saw the dunes become the cracked brown dirt of the desert's outskirts. Two more night brought dry, scrubby bushes, and after that parched patches of grass that got greener and larger until they joined together into a prairie-like landscape. The land sloped down and the air became more humid.

“We're almost at the river,” Nepeta told Equius. “Not fur 'til the forest.”

The river was wide, but not particularly fast or deep, and they easily waded across. They stopped on the other side and made camp, leaving their clothes outside the tent to dry off. The night after that, they reached the forest.

Equius would never admit it, but he hated it at first. As they moved in deeper, the gnarled trees clustered around them ever thicker. Insects chirped and buzzed. The eerie cries of night birds echoed back and forth. Gnarled branches and an oppressive canopy loomed overhead, and the light from the moons was reduced to the point that Equius could barely see Nepeta ahead of him. He took out a torch and clicked it on.

“Turn that off,” Nepeta hissed. Equius fumbled at the switch and stuffed the torch back into his pack. Nepeta was on edge: alert, feral and obviously annoyed by his lack of woods-craft. She slipped through the trees like a ghost. He trampled through them like an elephant. He could sense her tensing up every time a twig snapped under his feet.

“Nepeta, I can't see.”

“Take off your sunglasses, idiot!”

“Huh? Oh, yes. Right.” Blushing, he pulled his shades off his face.

Without them, his sight adjusted and he was able to watch where he was putting his feet. He learned to step in the places where the carpet of leaf-mould was thickest, and to lift his feet rather than kicking his way through it. Nepeta seemed pleased, and walked on a bit less cautiously.

They came to a clearing. Equius stumbled into it after Nepeta and was almost blinded by the sudden brightness of the moonlight. He stuck his sunglasses back on.

“We can stop here,” Nepeta said. “We're close now.”

It was a good place to wait. The glade was tranquil and airy after the nerve-wracking trek through the forest, and Equius found he was able to relax. He busied himself by setting up the tent. Meanwhile, Nepeta made a circle of rocks and gathered up an armful of dry brush. She dropped it next to the circle and rummaged around in her pack. Equius – having rolled out the sopor sacks and dumped his own rucksack – emerged from the tent and watched her work.

“What are you doing?” he asked.

“Watch,” was Nepeta's reply. She found what she was looking for: a small wooden box, worn by travel and the elements. She opened it, took out a clump of dried grass, and laid it in the centre of her rock circle, fluffing it with her fingers. The tinderbox held a flint and steel in another compartment. Nepeta brought them out and struck the flint against the steel, scattering a shower of sparks over the grass. Equius stared in fascination. Sparks, for him, were the signs of electronic processes gone very wrong. He'd never thought there could be any reason for someone to make them intentionally.

Nepeta struck the steel again, and this time a spark caught in the kindling. An ember appeared a wisp of smoke curled upwards. Ever so gently, Nepeta blew on the baby fire, coaxing it into life. The tinder caught, the flame spread, and she carefully put down a piece of dry fern. Bit by bit, she (and Equius, once she showed him how) built it up into the first campfire they'd had since they started out on their expedition. They sat by it and warmed themselves, throwing on the odd bit of dead wood when it was needed.

“Do you often start fires like that?” asked Equius.

“Not all the time,” Nepeta said. “But we're not meowving tonight. I thought it'd be nice to have more light”

“A few flares would have been more efficient.”

“But not as fun!”

Equius had to admit she had a point. There was something deeply satisfying about feeding the fire and watching it wax or wane with their efforts. It made their camp seem more permanent, too, even though they could in theory pack up and leave just as quickly as any other time.

“Hey, do you hear that?”

Equius looked over at Nepeta. She had her head cocked, listening intently. “No,” he said. “What-”

“Listen!”

He tried. Over the sound of the fire and the wind sighing through the trees, he could hear something. A silvery, trickling, babbling sound. Something like -

“- water,” he concluded.

“Yeah, that's what I hear.” Nepeta stood and prowled towards the sound.

“Nepeta, wait, be careful.” Equius jumped up and nervously followed her.

They discovered the stream just beyond the edge of the clearing. It flowed, as streams do, past the glade and deeper into the forest. They followed it a short way and found it joined a small pond, from which smaller brooks flowed. They admired it, then went back to the clearing.

“We can refill our flasks now,” Nepeta said.

Equius frowned. “We should test it first. It might be unsafe to drink.”

“I've been drinking from streams like these ever since I pupated. Hasn't pawsoned me yet.”

Equius, to his credit, tried to let the matter go, but in the end he had to get up and retrieve a device from his pack. He swilled a sample of the stream water into it, and it flashed a sequence of lights that informed him it was perfectly safe to drink. He said as much to Nepeta.

“Told you,” she said, sticking her tongue out at him.

A warning hint of red appeared over the treeline, so they let the fire burn down to the point where Equius could stomp it out, then retreated into the tent. They went through the now familiar ritual of looking away while the other undressed and got into their sopor sack. This time, instead of going to sleep straight away, Nepeta poked her head out of hers and said “Are you ready for tomorrow?”

Equius unsealed his sack. “Does it seem as though I am not?”

“You might have to kill the behemoth if I can't.”

“I am comfortable with the idea killing something. I do not like that we are hunting down an innocent beast of no harm to anyone, but since I cannot dissuade you, I must protect you from your folly.”

Good enough, thought Nepeta. “Just so long as you can. I don't wanna get trampled or eaten 'cos you can't.”

“It won't be a problem. We should sleep now. Neither of us will be capable of killing this behemoth if we do not rest.”

They slept. When they woke and breakfasted, Nepeta was uncharacteristically silent. She was full of grim purpose, and kept checking her wrist claws over and over again, making sure they slid out of their spring-loaded sheaths smoothly, sharpening them and stropping them against a tree trunk until she had a pile of bark around her feet.

Equius had no weapons to worry about, just his fists, and felt under-prepared. He wished he'd been able to master the bow before this trip, but he still hadn't found one that he could draw without it splintering like matchsticks in his hands. He cracked his knuckles. He'd be strong enough not to need a weapon. He had to be, for Nepeta.

They headed into the forest. Nepeta led, as usual. Equius desperately wanted to do something to help, but there was nothing he could do. What did he know about tracking, or staying upwind of their quarry? Every so often Nepeta stopped and peered intently at the ground or the base of a tree, searching for spoor: tracks, droppings, scratches, anything.

By Equius' count, it took her two hours to find a trace of their prey's passing. “Here!” she said, dropping onto her knees. Her eyes were gleaming green, full of the thrill of the hunt. Equius knelt beside her to see what she'd found.

“This is a footprint?” he asked.

“Yeah! Try to find another one.”

They spread out, scouring the ground for another of the six-toed prints. Equius couldn't help but notice how deep the claw marks went into the soil, and how large they were. He found another a few feet away. “Is this one?” he asked.

Nepeta looked. “It is! These are furesh, too.”

“Another here!”

Equius' heart was speeding up. Finding the marks was like finding the answer to an engineering problem: each step leading closer and closer to the solution, but this was a hundred times more visceral. He could feel the adrenaline rushing through him with each print he found. They hurried on, following the increasingly clear trail until...

“Get down!” Nepeta urgently whispered. She threw herself down behind a bush and motioned for Equius to join her. There was something moving amongst the trees. Something big. Something that made the trees creak when it passed them by. It thundered past their hiding spot like it had hooves made of iron. Equius leapt up, ready to chase after it, but Nepeta grabbed his arm and hauled him back down with all her strength.

And then something bigger and faster barrelled out of the darkness and crashed after the thing that had passed them. The sounds of the beasts receded into the forest, then there was the scream of a dying creature and a noise like bones crunching. Nepeta and Equius listened to the hunting beast consume its grisly meal, trying to control their breathing.

The creature – presumably the shrieking behemoth – came back their way, moving slowly, with the supreme confidence of something that knew it was the biggest and most dangerous thing in the forest. It passed so close to their bush that Equius, had he been suicidal, could have reached out and touched it. It paused and sniffed the air. Nepeta and Equius froze.

To their utmost relief, it uttered a low, wary growl and moved on. Equius caught a glimpse of huge, elongated jaws and a reeking, shaggy pelt. They watched it until it had almost passed out of sight. Nepeta licked her finger, held it up to the wind and, satisfied that their scent wouldn't reach the beast's nostrils, motioned for Equius to follow her after it.

They tracked it for about half a mile, stopping constantly so that Nepeta could check they were downwind of any breeze, no matter how slight. There was no risk of losing the behemoth; the noise it made as it tramped through the forest echoed around the boughs.

“Listen,” Nepeta whispered.

“I don't hear anything,” Equius muttered back.

“It's stopped.”

Equius peered towards the place the beast had been a moment ago. “I can't see it. Did we lose it?”

“No. I think we found it's den.”

The ground up ahead was barren and rocky, bare of any trees save for a pathetic spindly one that hung over a dry gully. The gully led down into a deep, black cave, the entrance of which was littered with bones of every shape and size. There were skulls, too, smashed and scattered, but unmistakeably trollish. From within the cave came the growls and rumblings of their prey.

“I have a purrlan,” Nepeta said. She was trembling with excitement.

“Go on,” Equius said, hoping it was a good one.

“You climb that tree -”

“That? It can barely stand its own weight, let alone mine.”

“It will, trust me. You climb it, and I'll go down and lure the behemoth out. Then, when it charges at me, you jump on it and distract it. Then I can duck under it and attack it from behind.”

It was a ridiculous plan and it would get them both killed. But Equius didn't have a better one. He nodded silently and went to climb the tree. It was tougher than it looked, and bore his weight as Nepeta had said. He crawled out onto one of the thicker limbs, looked into the gully and watched her scramble down into it. She stood in the middle and shouted as loud as she could.

“HEY! BEHEMOTH! POOR LITTLE LOST KITTY OUT HERE! COME GET ME!”

From inside the cave came an answering snarl. She had its attention. The beast's snout poked out, and kept poking out. It was, as Equius had noticed before, ridiculously long, full of ridiculously sharp teeth and attached to a ridiculously huge monster covered in thick, matted fur. As it squeezed its bulk out of the now tiny-seeming cave, Equius noticed what he hadn't before. It had a crest of wickedly sharp spines running down its back. Onto which he intended to drop with all his weight.

The creature raised its head and roared, and Equius learnt why it was called the shrieking behemoth. The roar sounded like it was coming from every direction at once. The sound pitched higher and higher until it felt like it was stabbing his brain, rending his senses with weird ululating undertones. He almost fell out of the tree, such was its power.

The scream abated and Equius shook his head, trying to focus. The behemoth pawed the ground and tensed its back legs like a sprinter on the starting block. Nepeta dropped into a crouch. The roar didn't seem to have affected her. Maybe she knew it was coming and had hardened herself against it, or maybe she'd just put her hands over her ears. She flexed her wrists and her claws sprang out. The beast charged.

Equius dropped from his perch, fervently hoping that he'd gotten his timing and his angle right. He landed inches away from the spines, just behind the beast's shoulders. He bounced off its hide – it felt like boiled leather covered in scouring pads – but managed to grab hold of a spine before he hit the ground. The behemoth didn't even notice him, and it was still bearing down on Nepeta. Equius balled up his fist and punched it as hard as he could.

That got its attention. The beast roared and skidded to a stop side on to Nepeta, craning its neck to see the irritating little insect clinging to its pelt. Nepeta dived beneath it and jabbed upwards with her claws, inflicting a set of deep gashes in the behemoth's underbelly. It shrieked again and lumbered around. Nepeta rolled out of its way, but as she jumped up the beast raised its foreleg and slashed her across the side, knocking her to the ground.

“Nepeta!” yelled Equius. He used the behemoth's momentum to swing himself further up its back. The creature was looming over Nepeta, lifting its claw to finish her off. She wasn't moving. Equius couldn't see whether she was mortally injured or just stunned. He grabbed one of the beast's spines and pulled until it snapped off. Equius stabbed the makeshift spear into the behemoth's side, driving it in as deep as he could.

The behemoth screamed. It brought its foot crashing down next to Nepeta, who stirred and scrambled away. She scrambled away and painfully hauled herself upright, clutching her side. The wound wasn't going to keep her out of the fight. The beast was roaring, swinging its head from side to side and trying to snap at Equius. She raked her claws down its flank and danced away before it could get her again.

Equius broke off more spines and used them to spear the behemoth. He cleared enough space on its back to pull himself up and straddle it. It reared up on its hind legs and tried to throw him, screaming its rage into the sky. Equius threw an arm back to steady himself, and gasped. Pain lanced through him. One of the spines behind him had scored a deep gash down his arm. A rivulet of blue blood trickled across his skin. He grimaced and snapped off another spine.

Bit by bit, he climbed his way up the beast's back towards its head, breaking off its spines as he went. Some he stabbed into the creature's flesh, others he threw away. The behemoth lurched from side to side, bleeding from a dozen different wounds like a bull lanced by banderillas. It was weakening, but it was still strong, and Equius had to cling on for his life as it bucked and reared and tried to shake him off. Every so often it let loose its hideous shriek. He resisted the urge to clap his hands over his ears, knowing he'd likely lose his grip if he did.

Below, Nepeta harried it from every side. The behemoth was forced to divide its attention between her and Equius, and he was able to climb up to its neck. He tightened his legs around the beast's body, broke off the last spine before its head and, holding it in both hands, raised it above his head. He focused on the base of the behemoth's skull and brought his makeshift spear down.

The behemoth sensed the mortal blow and made one last titanic effort to throw him off. The terror of death gave it the strength it needed and Equius went plummeting to the ground, the spine falling from his grasp. He stood up and stared into the beast's eyes. It snarled triumphantly and lunged for him, mouth open, glittering strings of saliva dripping from each of its curved fangs. Equius raised his hands, desperately trying to fight it off.

Nepeta stepped in front of him and took two quick swipes at the behemoth's face. The second one cut deep. The creature screamed and stumbled back, gushing blood from a ruined eyeball.

“Now!” she said. “Hold its mouth open!”

Equius rushed forward and grabbed the behemoth's tusk-like front teeth. It shook its head, trying to escape his grasp. Straining, he levered its jaws open. Nepeta darted in and thrust her claws through the roof of its mouth. Blood streamed down her arms. The behemoth fell still, gave a dying sigh and slowly keeled forwards.

“Look out!” Equius grabbed Nepeta in his arms and hurled himself and her out of the behemoth's way. With a crash that shook the ground, the behemoth fell. He landed on his side, with her safely wrapped in his arms.

“Equius?” she said, muffled by his chest. “You're holding me.”

He gasped and let her go, pushing himself away. “I'm sorry,” he said. “I didn't – you're not...?”

She stood, sheathed her claws and ran her hands over herself. “I'm fine. You never touch me, though.”

“Because I'm afraid of hurting you. But you were in danger.”

“Yeah. You saved me.”

“You saved me.”

“We saved each other. And we won!” She turned to admire their prize.

Equius did the same and frowned. “I still do not think we should have killed it.”

“It would have killed us if we didn't, silly.”

“We did not have to hunt it.”

“Admit it. It was exciting.”

“Yes. And it was magnificent to see it so close. Still, it is a shame.”

Nepeta went over to him and stretched to put a blood-soaked arm around his shoulders. “I don't kill things just fur fun, Equikitty. Come on. Help me get it back to camp.”

Between the two of them, they hauled the behemoth's carcass back to their clearing. It took them a long time, and they couldn't move stealthily, but the forest seemed to respect their victory. Other predators and scavengers stayed away. The air was still and the usual sounds of the night had fallen silent. Even the trees appeared to move aside for them.

They returned to their camp and laid down their kill. Nepeta flicked out her claws and knelt beside it.

“Can you light a fire?” she asked.

“I believe so,” Equius replied. He found her tinderbox and, after a couple of tries, managed to get a small flame going. He built it up into a roaring blaze, while behind him, Nepeta did something messy to the behemoth. She came over with fresh blood on her hands and a fleshy lump speared on a sharp stick.

“Its heart,” Equius said. “What do you intend to do with that?”

Nepeta didn't answer. She thrust the heart into the fire and held it there, turning it slowly until the smell of roasting meat filled the air and the fat began to sizzle and pop. She drew it out, waited for it to cool, sliced with a claw and offered one half to Equius. He eyed it warily.

“I've never eaten meat,” he said.

“Try it,” said Nepeta. “Don't waste the kill. It’ll make you strong. Stronger.”

“I do not need to be any stronger.”

“Try it for me.”

“Very well. For you.” Equius took the meat, raised it to his mouth and bit down.

It didn't taste nearly as bad as he'd expected. He and Nepeta finished their meal and went to wash off in the stream. Beneath the water, she put her hand on his and squeezed.

“Hold mine,” she said.

“I'll hurt you,” said Equius.

“No you won't. Do it.”

Equius turned his hand over and closed it around Nepeta's. He waited for the scream, for her to yank her hand back crushed and broken. Nothing of the sort happened. He looked down at her. She was smiling. He was holding her hand without even thinking about it, and she was smiling.

When dawn came, it took far longer than usual for the sopor slime to put Equius to sleep. He knew that any other troll he touched would suffer bruises at best. So why could he touch Nepeta? The question whirled in his mind and refused to go away. Only sheer exhaustion let him drift off in the end.

* 

Nepeta spent the next night demolishing the corpse of the behemoth. She extracted its bladder and splashed its urine around to keep away predators. She skinned it, had Equius hammer wooden stakes into the ground and stretched the pelts between them to dry. She set a series of small fires built out of green wood and damp leaves, lashed together crude frames and hung strips of meat over them, smoking it into the jerky she enjoyed so much. She broke open its bones, scraped out the marrow and carved them into spears and arrows, which she buried along with the remainder of its spines so that she'd have a weapons cache if she ever came back.

Equius watched her in various states of drowsiness and disgust. It was abominable that she lived as she did: as a wild predator, with no thought for the future or reflection on the past. He wished that he could persuade her to leave behind the forests and the scrublands, to build a proper hive and civilise herself, but he knew that no matter how much he reasoned, pleaded, cajoled or threatened she'd never leave behind her threadbare, minute-to-minute subsistence. If he did manage it, she'd resent him for the rest of her life. He didn't want that. He wanted to help her.

Every so often, Nepeta looked over her shoulder and watched Equius pace listlessly. It was ridiculous that he lived as he did: as a slave to his blood caste, hopelessly devoted to his notions of duty and propriety even when they made him miserable. She wished she could make him see how isolated treating the vast bulk of troll society as either his superiors or inferiors made him. But he'd only resent her if she dragged him away from his civilised life and into her world, where the only blood that mattered was the blood you spilled.

Equius fell asleep. When he woke up, it felt like only seconds had passed. His sleep had been completely peaceful and untroubled by the usual nightmares brought on by soporless rest. The moons had moved along their arc and the night only had a couple of hours left. His back was warm. Turning around, he saw a fire flickering behind him. Nepeta must have started it. He was grateful, but irritated that she hadn't woken him, though that might have been more embarrassing than being left to sleep. Nepeta herself was missing. Half-panicking, he roused himself, threw some branches on the fire to keep it going and went to find her.

Equius found one of Nepeta's footprints in the muddy ground by the stream outside their clearing. He followed the water, listening to it splash and ripple, and as he walked along its banks he heard another sound. Somewhere up ahead she was humming a slow but cheerful tune. He pushed on through the brush, rounded a tree and saw her as beautiful and vulnerable as she'd ever been.

She was naked, standing knee deep in the pool the stream fed. The moonlight glistened on her wet skin, and Equius fancied he could see every droplet on her outlined in their glow. Her hair was the least messy he'd ever seen it. It was straight, shiny and hung down around her shoulders. A lot like his, he realised. He approved, and wondered if he could persuade her to keep it that way. It might even be possible to introduce her to combs.

Equius ducked behind a tree and called out “Nepeta!”

“I'm here!” she replied.

“You should not have left camp without me. I was worri- concerned. Ahem. For you.”

“There's nothing to be afraid of. I'm fine.”

There was a pause and the sound of Nepeta splashing water over herself. “Did you see me when you were coming over here?”

“No,” Equius lied. A few drops of sweat gathered on his forehead.

“Oh. Come out from behind there so we can talk propurrly.”

“No. You're naked.”

“A-ha! You did see me.” She giggled. “Naughty Equikitty.”

“I can hear you bathing. It's reasonable to assume that you are naked.”

“But you did see me, right?”

“Very well, if you insist on knowing then yes, I did.”

“How did I look?”

More sweat prickled Equius' skin. “You – you were attractive.”

He didn't have to see Nepeta to know she was pouting. “Just attractive? Come out and look again.”

Her wheedling tones coaxed Equius out from behind the tree. Once again he was struck by her grace, her poise, the self-assured confidence etched into every line of her tough little body.

“Closer,” Nepeta said. Equius stumbled forward. “Closer,” she repeated once he was at the edge of the pool. He waded in, not caring that his boots were filling with water. “Touch me,” she said when he was mere inches away from her. He reached out and squeezed her upper arm. She purred, took hold of his hand and guided it to her breast. It was small, yes, but soft and warm. His fingers twitched and his bulge stiffened in his pants. He swallowed.

“We shouldn't,” he said, “we're-”

“Equius, you need me.”

Nonsense. He was fine. She needed him. But he could play along if it helped her.

“Yes, maybe. But you need me too.”

Rubbish. He was the one with all the problems. But she could agree if it helped him.

“Yeah, I do.” She grinned. “Purrhaps we should give each other what we need.” She snaked a hand down his stomach and onto his crotch, squeezing and probing.

“Nepeta, are you sure?”

“It's okay. I want it.” She felt his bulge stirring, rubbed harder and tried to judge his size. “Let me see.”

With a splash, Nepeta dropped to her knees. She fiddled with his shorts, got them undone and let them drop. Slowly, in the manner of someone prolonging the anticipation of unwrapping a long-awaited present she peeled his underwear away from his hips and tugged it down.

“Oh, me-wow,” she breathed. “Now I really want it.”

Even with it half-erect, Nepeta could barely close her fingers around Equius' cock. It stiffened further and swelled to the point where she couldn't even do that. She put both her hands on his shaft and ran them up and down its length. She watched the tip, where his bulbous cockhead diverged into a dark slit. As soon as the first drop of precum dribbled out, she darted forward and licked it up. She pursed her lips and clamped them around the base of his' glans.

Equius moaned. Nepeta's mouth was smoother and hotter than he could have imagined. She was sucking, too, clearly keen to draw out more of his precum. Her hand crept up his prick and onto his balls. She gently squeezed and massaged them, encouraging them to draw down more of his fluids and overflow.

Nepeta's tongue curled and flexed around Equius' cockhead, coating it in her saliva. He could have luxuriated in the feeling of it for the rest of the night, but instinct urged him on. He reached down and put his hand on her head, stroking her damp hair. He pulled her towards himself. She mumbled a protest, so he slackened his grip and circled his thumb around the base of her left horn, to show her that he wasn't thinking of his pleasure alone.

Nepeta let out a muffled mewl and craned her neck, tilting her head to let Equius scratch harder. She showed her appreciation by taking in more of his cock, sliding her lips down its length until the tip rested on the back of her tongue. Deepthroating him was out of the question. She was game enough to try, but the sheer size of his bulge defeated her. She pulled back, gagging and coughing, and had to settle for sucking the first couple of inches.

Equius was happy with the compromise. Her tongue flicking over the parts of his prick it could reach was enough to make him gasp on its own. Coupled with her hands working his shaft he was quickly approaching the peak he knew from his rare, shameful moments of self-pleasure. He was gushing precum and wondered if Nepeta liked the taste. She was slurping it up with every sign of enjoyment, making little 'mm, mm' noises all the while.

It would have been so easy for Equius to crest the ridge and experience his first moment of ecstasy at the hands of another, but this was special. It had to last, and so he put his hand on Nepeta's forehead and pushed her back. His cock slipped out of her mouth, followed by a surprised 'mulp!' from her.

“No good?” Nepeta asked?

“No, wonderful,” Equius said. “But I want to do it properly.”

She smiled up at him. “Let's go back to the camp.”

Nepeta pulled Equius' pants back up and fastened them for him. They were soaking wet, but he didn't have time to be annoyed. She stood up and leapt on him, wrapping her legs around his waist and her arms around his neck. He rocked back, recovered and reached down to support her. She giggled as he cupped her bottom. He opened his mouth to apologise for his lewdness; she stopped him with a kiss, locking her lips to his and wriggling her tongue into his mouth. Gradually, she coaxed him into reciprocating. Even his tongue was strong. She let him take the lead and kiss her the way he wanted. Eventually the broke apart, breathless and entranced by each others' eyes.

Equius carried Nepeta out of the pool. “Your clothes?” he asked.

“I washed my shirt; it needs to dry,” she replied. “Leave 'em. They'll be here tomorrow.” In actuality there was the chance that something would carry them off, but she didn't care. She wanted to be back at the camp with Equius naked and on top of her. She wriggled in closer, tightened her grip and buried her face in the crook of his shoulder. She could feel the heat rising in her, and knew there was a wet patch on Equius' shirt, spreading out from where her crotch touched it. She knew he must be feeling it. She knew it would arouse him, and that if it didn't her pheromones would. He hefted her and picked his way back to the clearing as though he hadn't noticed, though his breathing was heavy and his skin was warm.

The fire Nepeta had started for Equius was still burning when they got back to camp. They threw on some more wood and waited for it to flare up, kissing and caressing in its glow. They sank to their knees and she pawed at his vest. She bundled it up over his head; he lifted his arms and let her pull it off the rest of the way, then she lowered her head to his huge chest and took one of his nipples into her mouth. Impulsively, she bit down. He hissed and grit his teeth, arching his neck back. The pain was like no pain he'd felt before, like something to be enjoyed, not avoided. Perhaps it was because Nepeta was the one inflicting it. She drew back and admired the ring of dark blue bruises she'd made before he grabbed her chin and tilted her head up for another kiss.

Nepeta laid back in the grass and parted her legs as far as her considerable flexibility allowed. She used both hands to spread the lips of her nook, showing Equius the green-tinged flesh glistening within. “Hurry, Equius. Stick that purrfect bulge in my little pussy.”

Equius all but ripped off the rest of his clothes. His laces died horribly as he yanked off his boots, snapping apart before his perfectly tied knots came undone. He threw off his pants and briefly struggled to get his underwear over his erection. Naked, he crawled atop Nepeta. He was much too tall to look her in the face and still have any hope of pailing with her, so to compensate he pulled her hands away from her nook and pinned them above her head, threading his fingers between hers. She murmured happily and squeezed hers around his.

With his hands occupied, Equius found it tricky to get his bulge into position. His first thrust missed, and his cock slipped over Nepeta's mound, grinding against her clitoris. A delicious shudder ran through her. Equius lined up for another try, thrust and this time speared her to the hilt.

Nepeta's yowl shattered the stillness of the night. She'd never been stretched so fast or so thoroughly before. The pain got her adrenaline flowing and her blood pumping, and the pleasure crept in behind it. She clenched down on Equius' cock and felt every one of its curves and ridges pressing into her walls. She held her breath and waited for him to pull back.

Equius had made a ridiculous noise upon penetrating Nepeta, something halfway between a whimper and a gasp. He'd blushed a deep blue, but her cry had drowned his out.

“Sorry,” he muttered. “Did I hurt you?”

There was a growl from beneath his chest. “Keep going, dummy.”

Flustered, Equius pulled back in a jerky, inelegant motion. He marvelled at how tightly Nepeta gripped him, how slick she was and yet how hard she was to escape. His next few thrusts were gentle and tentative compared to his entry. He felt a sense of responsibility. If Nepeta was ever going to be dragged out of her squalid life she needed to know that civilisation had its pleasures. He varied his speed, angled his hips and listened to her breathing, trying to figure out what she liked best.

Nepeta felt the same way. She'd crossed paths with countless trolls in her time and pailed with more than a few of them. This was the first time she'd ever felt that her partner needed her help. If she was going to knock Equius off his high hoofbeast and drag him out of his stifling life she needed to show him that the wild offered bliss that civilisation simply couldn't match. She threw her legs around his waist, her arms around his back, reared up and bit down hard on his shoulder.

Equius screamed, and his hips crashed into Nepeta's hard and uncontrolled. “That's it!” she wheezed, all of the breath knocked out of her. “More like that!”

If that was how she wanted it. Equius slipped a hand between the two of them and caressed her breasts, squeezing them, running his thumb over her taut nipples. He was determined to attend to her needs first, but in doing as she asked and fucking her hard he was losing himself in the act too.

A bead of sweat dripped off the tip of Equius' nose, followed by more drips pattering down on the ground. Soon it was lashing off him, rolling down his face, neck and chest and dripping over Nepeta. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath, inhaling the marine scent of it. This was how she wanted him: strong, sweaty and impassioned. No endless requests for fresh towels, no denial of his basic nature. She dragged her tongue across his chest, over his nipple and savoured the tang of his exertion. Massaging his back, she let more sweat trickle over her hands, then curled them into claws and raked them down his back. She felt her nails puncture his skin, and his blood flowed out to mingle with his sweat.

Equius grunted and grit his teeth against the pain. He pulled out of Nepeta, drawing a protesting yowl from her. He was tired of being scratched and bitten, and their current position was far from ideal for someone of his size. He flipped her over like a child playing with a doll and hauled her onto her knees. She tried to get to her hands, but he shoved her back down. If she wanted him unrestrained then nothing was going to restrain him, not even her.

Nepeta thrashed against Equius' grip. She loved that he was finally taking the initiative, but she badly needed his cock back inside her. Equius – for all he wanted the same – couldn't quite overcome the urge to put her first. He rubbed her crotch, smearing the pale green translucency of her juices even further over her thighs. He kept at it until she was squirming and pushing her hips back against him, then, when his own need had completely overwhelmed him, he lined up his prick and took her for the second time.

Even the behemoth hadn't been as ferocious. Equius grabbed Nepeta's waist and squeezed until she whimpered. The rhythmic thump and slap of his flesh on hers meant that he barely heard her, and he was carried away enough that he didn't care. All that mattered was the ache in his muscles, the heat in and around his bulge, and Nepeta's subsequent mewling moans that let him know she was enjoying him as much as he was enjoying her, tight grip or no. He looked down at her, watching her bob forward in time with his thrusts. She'd stayed bent over and rested on her forearms. She was trembling, her hands clenching and unclenching, clearly very close to her climax.

Equius couldn't focus on anything but his pleasure any longer. His cum was roiling in his balls, eager to come rushing out, and he had to keep his core tight to stave it off. He kept blindly humping, letting the pressure build and build. Under him, Nepeta came, and he only noticed because her walls rippled around his bulge. The added tightness didn't slow him down at all. He just pumped harder, grunting, his balls swinging so hard they bounced against Nepeta's pussy.

Equius hit the point of no return, then slipped over it. His orgasm hit him so fast that he barely had enough time to bury himself in Nepeta. His genefluid was magma-hot as it geysered out of him, inundating her cunt. The first spurt splashed against the ring of muscle around the opening of her genebladder, triggering it to open. He felt traces of her fluid trickling out, then another surge of his cum swept it up and back in. Equius doubled over, gasping. This climax was more potent than any he'd ever experienced. Some huge external force was squeezing him down into a diamond-hard core of pleasure, constricting him, forcing his muscles into trembling paralysis. He struggled against it, but it held him until he'd completely spent his seed. Only then did it release, and all that energy flooded back into his body and drained out through his pores, leaving him tingling from horn to toe.

Equius' cum filled Nepeta until she was overflowing. The excess oozed down her canal and out over his bulge, warming it outside as it had inside. The last few drops of his fluid trickled out of him. Nepeta moaned and reached back to rub her belly. It was tight and full; her genebladder was sealing itself up in preparation for mingling his stuff with her own. He pulled out of her and flopped down on his back. She rolled over onto her side and snuggled up to him, resting her head on his chest, listening to the gradually slowing thrum of his mighty heart. He reached up and idly scratched the base of her horn.

Purring, Nepeta asked him: “So how was that?”

He gave a satisfied grunt, and when she elbowed him he ventured that it might have been good. She crawled on top of him and looked into his eyes, frowning.

“Just good?”

“It was very good.”

“Hmmph”

“It was wonderful. I never would have – I mean I haven't -”

“It's okay,” she whispered, nuzzling him and smiling. “I wanted to make you feel good.”

“And I...I may have been wrong about...certain aspects of the rules governing relations between the higher and lower blood castes.”

Nepeta's smile widened. That was a big admission for him, and a little victory for her.

They laid together in silence a while longer, occasionally kissing or running their hands across each others' bodies, massaging a tense muscle here, tickling a sensitive spot there. Equius, scratching Nepeta's horns again, noticed that her hair was still straight and smooth. He raked his fingers through it, marvelling at its silkiness.

“It's nice this way,” he murmured.

“Mrmm?” she mumbled.

“Your hair. I like it this way. Far better than that usual tangle you have, anyway.”

“Well yours looks purretty good too. Better than that greasy mop you usually have, anyway.”

“What do you mean?”

Nepeta shuffled off of him. “Go look.”

Equius stood, dripping sweat and a few stray droplets of cum. He went over to the tent and peered into its silvered surface. In his dull reflection he could just about make out his hair, matted into a frizzy mess by mud, blood and all the other contaminants of the forest. He looked savage, wild and fearsome. He looked like Nepeta on one of her off days. Vaguely unsettled, he went back to the fire. Nepeta had gone, and he called out to her

“Over here,” she called from behind a tree.

Her genebladder had been rumbling, signifying that it was ready to expel what it had processed. She'd ducked into cover and let it happen. While the evidence of her and Equius' coupling dribbled out of her she scrutinised the backs of her hands. Her nails and her fingertips had traces of blue on them from where she'd scratched him. The only blood that mattered was the blood you spilled.

Nepeta finished up and went back into the clearing. She caught Equius' glance at the turquoise stains down her thighs.

“We should have brought a pail,” she said, noting Equius' blush at the word. “We could've made a grub.”

“We would have had no way of getting it to the Mother Grub,” Equius pointed out. “There are no servitor tunnels out here.”

“If Fefurry hadn't killed all the Imperial Drones-”

“We would both have been culled a long time ago.”

“You would,” Nepeta said, sticking her tongue out at Equius. “I've pailed before.”

Equius leaned forward. “Oh? You never told me this.”

“Well my furst time was with a wandering-”

Equius held up his hands. “No, no details. Never with a matesprit or kismesis, though?”

“No.”

“And now?”

She wrapped her arms around him and squeezed him as hard as she could. Beyond that, she didn't seem inclined to give him an answer.

The fire burnt out and the sun crept over the horizon. Nepeta and Equius retreated into the tent and climbed into their sopor sacks. There was no bashful turning of backs this morning, no looking away while the other covered themselves. Their gazes lingered appreciatively on each other. When they were completely sealed up, they went to sleep as close together as the sacks allowed.

They woke an hour before the sun set, full of energy and eager to face the night. The answer to the question of how to pass the time before they could safely go outside was obvious, but Nepeta was damned if she was going to always be the one to ask for sex. She prowled around the tent, doing everything she could to get Equius in the mood. To her slight chagrin the mere sight of her naked body wasn't enough. He was just sitting there, cross-legged and waiting calmly, so she started doing things that had her bending over, making sure he got a good look at her hindquarters each time. She lifted the edges of the tent and peeked out, wincing at the brightness. She fussed with her pack and the sopor sacks. When that failed she sauntered back and forth across his field of vision, stretching slowly and making ecstatic little yawns and groans.

Equius responded the way any healthy young male troll would have. His bulge stiffened and poked out from between his thighs. He blushed, covered his crotch and tried to look away from Nepeta, but no matter which way he turned she found some pretext to stay in his view. When he closed his eyes an image of her stayed firmly in his mind. Nepeta smiling, Nepeta talking, Nepeta lying in the grass with her legs spread like she'd been last night...

“Nnng,” Equius groaned. He gave in, unsure of why he was resisting anyway. “Nepeta, would you care to pail?”

“You are such a blue-blood. 'Nepeta, would you care to pail?'” she mocked, giggling.

He shuddered at the crude imitation of an upper caste accent, but limited his report to a curt “Well?”

“Aww, is my little Equikitty feeling all furisky? Show me.”

He took his hands away from his bulge. Nepeta moistened her lips, dropped to all fours, slinked over to him and put her head in his lap. She took a long lick up the length of his shaft, still dirty from last night's fun, but she didn't care about that. She just wanted to see it at its full size again. Equius leaned back and let her do her thing.

When he was completely hard, Nepeta tried to mount him, expecting him to give in to his urges and take her like he had before. Instead, he pushed her away and said: “Lie on your back.”

Nepeta did, and Equius bent over and gently parted her thighs. He put his head between them and stuck out his tongue. Her lower lower lips were swollen, sticky and stained bluey-green, but his cock wasn't in much better a state and she'd been good enough to use her mouth on him. And, when he slithered the tip of his tongue across her slit, she didn't taste that bad. With growing enthusiasm, he slurped up the mingled remnants of his cum and hers. She moaned, but a few more licks revealed that enthusiasm was all he had. He was an amateur cunnilinguist at best. He unerringly flicked that big, strong flexible tongue of his against all her least sensitive places. He clitoris throbbed for attention, but he'd developed a complete blind spot where it was concerned. She sighed and squirmed impatiently. Such a waste of potential. She'd have to train him up at some point, but right now she needed more than what his mouth could give.

Nepeta reared up and Equius, surprised, did the same. She leapt at him and he caught her, dragging her into his lap. She ground against his bulge, cooing at the size and heat and hardness of it. That at least could never fail to satisfy. She lunged at his shoulder, intending to bite it and uncage the glorious beast she'd seen last night. He grabbed her before she could, held her away from himself and said,

“No scratching. No biting. We do this gently or we do not do it at all.”

Nepeta wondered if he'd hold her to that if she called his bluff, but it didn't seem fair now that she'd teased him into it.

“Fiiiiine,” she said. “Be boring.” She rocked against him, spreading her labia against his shaft and slicking her juices over it. She wanted it just as much as Equius did, so she let him clasp her bottom and lift her. He lowered her onto his prick and both of them learned how nice a long, gentle penetration could feel. She opened to him millimetre by millimetre, her walls adjusting to fit him so closely it was like they were merging together. He moaned as the wet heat of her insides seeped into his flesh, and as the soft whorls and ridges of her insides moulded themselves to his cock. 

Nepeta in turn found herself relishing the slow stretch rather than the brutal reaming she usually favoured. At the very edge of her pleasure was a kind of tingling ache, a reminder that Equius was (and how glad she was of it) slightly too big for her. She'd adjust to it in time, but for now she relished the feeling of being overstuffed.

Together they figured out how to make their position work. At first Equius clasped Nepeta's waist, lifted her and slid her back down, but he lowered her too fast and the tip of his cock jarred the back of her nook. She grimaced: the pain far from the kind she liked, and shifted her legs so that her knees rested on the ground. Now she could move with him, thrusting up when he went to lift her, slowing herself when he brought her down. It was nice for a change, she thought, to neither be completely dominated nor in total control.

Nepeta and Equius clung to each other: pressed together, her breasts squashed against the muscular wall of his chest, hard nipples pressed back into yielding flesh. They whispered encouragement, endearments and advice, what felt good, what didn't, and they moaned their partner's name. They rocked back and forth, him leaning over her one moment, cock penetrating nook, her over him the next, pussy swallowing bulge. She put her hands on his head, one in the tangles of his hair and one on his unbroken horn and pulled him down for a kiss. They locked their lips and entwined their tongues, pushing their faces as close together as they possibly could, both of them almost believing that if they got a little closer they could become one. Solving the other's problems would be so trivial, then.

Intimacy gave way to passion, and Nepeta and Equius' words turned sharp and short, gasped out whenever they could catch a breath between kisses and moans. Soon they devolved into guttural grunts and groans, expressing their pleasure and their feelings for each other in the most primitive, basic and universally understood language.

Nepeta sank herself all the way down to the root of Equius' cock, taking in so much of him that her lips brushed his balls and her pussy dribbled its juices over them. Mewling, she wriggled her hips from side to side, loving his flesh inside her, steel-hard, blood-hot and as smooth and soft as velvet on the outside. She grit her teeth and forced the last few millimetres of it inside herself, then reached down and rubbed her stomach. She could feel it inside her: a rigid shaft distending parts of her that were normally pliable. She rippled her muscles around his prick and went woozy at the buzz that ran through her. Gripping Equius, she lifted herself off, her labia clinging to his shaft. She bit her lip and dropped back down, squealing at the renewed burst of sensation.

Equius found it much easier to hold back with Nepeta doing the work. All he had to do was to sit still, caress her, slow her down when she got too rough, control his breathing and restrain himself. His cock was throbbing, his balls were tightening. He was in charge of his body. His toes curled up, his sinews tensed. He could handle it. His breathing turned ragged and his thoughts became hazy. He was-

Moaning, Equius passed the point of return, felt hot seed flood from his genebladder into his balls and knew that whatever happened next, within the next few seconds he was going to come. He clenched his jaw and willed Nepeta to reach her peak before him, but she was still riding his cock with no sign of stopping. He clenched his teeth, twitching as he felt the same pressure he'd felt the previous night descend on him.

Equius couldn't stand to let Nepeta down, not when he'd insisted on his position and his pace. As soon as his mind cleared and his limbs regained their strength he picked her up off his drooping prick, turned her around and sat her back down in his lap. She mewled; she'd been humping him in the aftermath of his orgasm, desperately trying to gather up the last few scraps of pleasure she needed for her own, and she'd been so close, so close, all he had to do was hold on for a few more lousy seconds. She twisted round and scowled at him, but he just smiled in a way that set her teeth on edge and said "There are other ways than mere bestial mating, Nepeta."

Mere bestial mating was the way Nepeta liked best, and after Equius' pathetic attempt at eating her out earlier she didn't have much hope in anything else he could do. But she let him sneak his hand down into the soaking delta between her thighs and found that she was happily mistaken.

It was hard to screw up a good, solid fingerfuck, and Equius had the perfect fingers for it: thick, tough and textured with callouses, yet nimble from their work on intricate robotics. He cupped Nepeta's mound for a brief moment, coating his palm in her glistening greenness, then slipped his index finger into her, slowly, teasingly, up to the first knuckle, then the second and finally, with her bucking against his hand and goading him on, up to the third. His bulge had loosened her considerably, but her walls twitched, trying to grip his digit and draw it in even further. Her stirred his finger around, churning his cum into a sloppy mixture with her fluids. He made an experimental thrust, the mix dribbling out in his finger's wake. Nepeta mewled, shuddered and clasped both her hands around his.

“More,” she demanded, tugging at his fingers. “Another!” Equius extended his middle finger and pushed it into her alongside the other. Nepeta gasped, her eyes rolling up behind hooded lids. “Anothurrrrr,” she said, slurring the word out into a purr.

“Are you certain?”

Nepeta whipped round like a snake turning to strike and glared at Equius. “Yes!" she spat. “If I say I want something I don't nyeed mew fur me the whole time. Meow furry up and do it! Stick your claws in me!”

Equius wisely suppressed a laugh at the sudden barrage of unintended cat puns and did as she ordered, worming three thick fingers deep into her hole.

“Nyah! Yes!”

The heel of Equius' palm – whether by accident or design, Nepeta didn't care – ground into her clitoris. When he flexed his fingers his hand pushed against it, tugging and rolling the little bud behind its fragile covering of skin. Occasionally, her hood slipped back and her naked jewel made sharp contact with his' hand. It was like an electric gut-punch: the deep-down breathtaking shock of overstimulated nerves screaming their outrage, followed by the surging warmth of endorphins and the lesser, gentler pleasure of his fingers.

Nepeta could take pain. She could take hunger, fear and cold; she'd withstood a thousand privations and a thousand pleasures but this – Equius' crude, fumbling attempts at pleasing her – this for whatever reason she could barely stand. She wanted to see it through to the end, knowing it'd be good, and so she flung her arm back and around his' shoulders, leaning into him when his questing fingers found one of the spots that sent a beautiful tremor glissading up her spine, gritting her teeth and breathing deeply when the pressure on her clitoris threatened to spill over into pain.

Nepeta's awareness seeped into the whole of her being, and she became her experience. She was Equius' fingers, hypnotically thrusting in-out, in-out, and she was her walls wrapped around them, throbbing with her pulse, rippling with her breath. She was the smell of sweat and sex, she was the slishing sound of her juices and their wet warmth as her pussy drooled across her thighs. She was the solid bulk of Equius' chest behind her, she was the thump of his heart against her back. She was the heat of his loins below her. His cock was hardening again, and the thought of it plunging back into her made her throw back her head and howl.

There was no risk of pain any more. Nepeta's clit took any jolt, any movement and used it to fill the greedy fire burning in her stomach. Her orgasm felt like a live thing that twisted inside her as it gestated, desperate to be free, to escape through her screams and shudders. She wanted to let it out, to let it trample her senses and tear apart her reason in the path of its terrible passage. She rocked on Equius' hand, humping it, letting the pressure on her clitoris ripen her climax, using his fingers to coax it out. She was moaning, mewling, whimpering; her eyes were screwed shut, mouth was open, panting, tongue hanging out. She knew she looked ridiculous but she didn't care. Here it came, and dignity was no longer an option.

Nepeta heard herself scream, and kept hearing it until her lungs were empty. Her pussy convulsed, squeezing Equius' fingers and squirting out a spray of her juice around them. She struggled for breath, but another jolt passed through her body and forced it from her. Her head swam as the aftershocks took her, radiating from her core like ripples in a pond, each weaker than the previous until at last she forced her body to respond to her commands rather than theirs and sucked in a gulp of sweet air.

With a happy, exhausted 'nya' Nepeta flopped to the side. Equius caught her and held her steady. He took his hand out from between her legs, wiped it on the floor of the tent until it was reasonably clean and used it to cradle her head. He rubbed the base of her horns and after a few moments she started to purr. She opened her eyes as though waking from sleep and stared up at him.

“Mmm, Equius.” A dreamy smile spread slowly across her face.

“Can I assume you enjoyed that?”

“Mmhmm.” Her eyelids closed again and she rested in his arms. Equius kept stroking her horn until she roused herself again. She couldn't stay still for too long, and after a couple of minutes she wriggled out of his arms and kneeled, pressing her face close to his. With their foreheads touching and in between kisses she told him “That was wonderful.”

“For me as well.” Equius curled an arm round her, running his hand down her back to her bottom. He squeezed, and she she giggled.

“There's some things you could learn though,” she said.

“Then we should begin my education immediately.” He flung his other arm around her and pulled her to the floor.

They stayed in the tent far longer than they'd intended. When at last they poked their heads outside, the moons were already high. Nepeta grinned ruefully at Equius. “We should purrobably go get my clothes back.”

“And wash,” he said, wrinkling his nose.

“But I just had a bath last night.”

“Yes, well, we've been indulging in some rather messy activities.”

“We're fine. We won't start to really stink for another partsweep at least.”

“We are not fine.”

“We are!”

Bickering, they traipsed into the forest, following the familiar burble of the stream. Nepeta's clothes were exactly where she'd left them. Equius sniffed as he passed them, and privately concluded that the smell must have driven off any prowlers. He resolved to bring along some laundry goo and show her how to use it the next time he came out.

Equius stepped into the pond, striding out into the middle until the water came up to his waist. After much argument, he persuaded Nepeta to join him. Once in, all her protests vanished and she frisked around him, splashing him and sluicing water down his back. He weaved his fingers together, picked up a double handful of water and dumped it over her head. She yowled and spluttered, but allowed him to step behind her and comb her hair, carefully teasing out all the tangles their pailing had put in.

Clean and sparkling, they left the pool and waited for the air to dry their goose-pimpled skin. Nepeta put on her underwear, her trousers – cinching the belt of her tail into place; she'd felt more naked without that than anything else – then raised her arms and waited for Equius to help her on with her shirt. He did, and finished up by draping her coat around her shoulders. She shrugged her arms into the sleeves and put her hand into his. Together, they walked back to the clearing.

When they returned, Equius went into the tent and dressed while Nepeta checked on her various drying racks and smoking fires. The jerky was coming along nicely, and the furs would make fine clothes once she'd tanned them. The bits of the behemoth she hadn't butchered were beginning to smell a bit mature. It wasn't yet inedible, but it soon would be if she didn't finish. She set to work with a will.

Equius emerged from the tent, sat down on a log and watched Nepeta take apart the beast's head. She stripped off its skin, exposing red muscles, and plucked out its sunken, ruined eyeballs. He shuddered, but forced himself to keep looking out of respect for it. The curve of the creature's jaw had caught his attention. He saw how its elongated muscles gave its bite such terrifying speed and strength, how its cruel hooked teeth could tear into flesh, latch on and never let go. He darted into the tent, came out clutching a sketchbook and pencil and sat down to draw, re-imagining the monster in steel and biosynthetics.

As Nepeta sliced away the behemoth's facial muscles layer by layer Equius' ideas grew more detailed, more defined. He saw its teeth replaced with sedative syringes for non-lethal operations, or grinding, armour-cutting blades for when casualties were unavoidable. He heard its shriek echo across the battlefield, amplified, focussed and augmented with subsonics: a natural psychological weapon made even more potent. The tail would be unnecessary for balance; instead it would be a whip, snaring tangling and following up with a blast of electricity.

Equius' sketches segued into equations: strain, weight, density, rough aerodynamics and centres of gravity. Nepeta reduced the head to a bare skull, and Equius made a drawing of that before continuing on, calculating power requirements, materials and the cost to actually build a prototype. While he thought up various subsystems Nepeta tended to the camp, hanging meat on racks and staking out a few of the behemoth's ribs to add a homely touch. At one point she went over to Equius and made him drink a cupful of water and eat some jerky and some purpleberries she'd plucked from a bush. He barely tasted them, scarfing them down as fast as possible so he could get back to his work.

Later, while Equius was in the middle of drafting a basic AI routine, Nepeta came over and sat next to him, peering intently over his shoulder at the lines of pseudocode.

“What're you doing?” she asked.

“You were right, as much as I hate to admit it. Our callous murder of this majestic creature has inspired me. I am going to build the strongest robot Alternia has ever seen.”

“Oooh, yay! See, hunting's nyot so bad, is it meow?”

Equius looked up at the remnants of the behemoth. He remembered its scream again, and the thrill he'd felt witnessing it charging through the forest after its prey. He let his gaze drop back down and stared at his sketchbook.

“It was useful.”

“Aww, don't be said.” Nepeta hugged him and patted his shoulder. “We hunted it. We killed it. And we're alive to enjoy it. That's nature. And we gave it a fur chance, didn't we?”

More of a chance than a warrior has against your machines, a guilty part of Equius said, no matter how non-lethal you try to make them.”

“That is true,” he said, half to himself. “And I would not have seen it at all without you. It was a privilege. Thank you.”

“There's other things out there. I could show them to you.”

Equius set aside his sketchbook and Nepeta crawled into his lap. “Mighty beasts?”

“Oh yeah.” She squiggled around and kissed him, one quick peck on his lower lip. “Big hairy ugly muscle monsters, just the way you like 'em.”

“I would enjoy that. Particularly with you accompanying me.” Equius kissed her back, lingering a little longer. “Hopefully we may not have to kill any next time.”

“Not even a little one?” Nepeta caught his glance and said “Okay, we can just go beast watching.” She bounced experimentally and grinned. “Hey, speaking of mighty beasts.” Her hand shot down to his crotch and caressed his bulge through his pants. He moaned, leaned back and let her knead him into erection. It wasn't long before he could resist no more. He picked Nepeta up, threw her over his shoulder and carried her into the tent while she screamed with laughter and playfully beat her fists against his back.

The next night passed in much the same way. Towards the end of it, Equius realised he was nearing the limit of what he could do with pencil and paper. When he looked up at the peaceful stars it was easy to forget that there was a war raging among them. People needed him, and he needed his lab, his computers and his tools. He had to put what he'd learned to use.

But there was another who needed him as well. Equius and Nepeta laid together that dawn, still engrossed by the novelty of each other's bodies. He held her close and said to her, as matter-of-factly as he possibly could “I have to go tomorrow.”

She sighed. “Yeah. I knyew you were going to say that sooner or later. Do you really have to?”

“People will die if I don't.”

“People will die if you do.”

“Yes.” Equius paused. “But I will feel better about it if I do. You know I have always thought I should be fighting. It is my duty as a blue-blood.”

“But you can't! Your robots are too important.”

“Ah, so you do agree that I should be working on them?”

“Yes! Wait, nyo.” Nepeta scowled, realising she'd been outmanoeuvred. Slowly, she continued “Okay. But what if I stay here for a while? I have to finish off the meat and furs, anyway. You don't have have to walk, right? We only did beclaws I thought we should.”

“I have some vehicles, yes.”

“Then you can visit me! It'll only take a few hours to fly here.”

“I can do that. On one condition.”

Nepeta warily asked what the condition was.

“You have to spend some time at my hive, too.”

“That's fine. You can build me another robot.”

“Where you will learn to regularly use the ablution block,” Equius concluded. Nepeta hissed. “No deal, otherwise.”

“Aaagh, yes, clawright. But when you come here, you have to not wash! For at least five nights. At furst.”

“Acceptable.”

They kissed to seal the deal: a lovers' handshake, merging their mouths together in recognition of their mutual feelings. Simultaneously, Nepeta's hand found Equius' bulge and his her nook. She pulled back from him and slyly said "We should make the meowst of the rest of our time togefur."

They (loudly, passionately) made the most of the rest of their time together, and crawled into their sacks limp and exhausted. The sopor soaked into their pores, soothing strained muscles, calming battered and over-exhilarated nerves. Sleep beckoned, black and cavernous beneath them. Equius and Nepeta gratefully plunged into it.

Neither Equius nor Nepeta wanted to leave the tent the next evening, knowing that when they did they'd be separated for who knew how long. They mooched around for as long as they could. He checked and re-checked his pack; she scoured the tent for anything he might have dropped. He rolled up one of the sopor sacks and stuffed it into his rucksack. She went to get the other, saying "I guess we need to take the tent down nyow."

"No, leave it," he said after a moment of internal debate. "You may have it. Keep the other sopor sack too."

Her eyes widened. She'd come to enjoy being protected from the elements and lulled into nightmareless sleep, and she'd been concerned Equius would have taken it all with him when he left. "Really? Aww, thanks Equikitty! But what're you gonna do about the sun?"

He rummaged in his pack and pulled out a reflective cloak just like hers, though perhaps a bit bigger to suit his size. "I thought it might be worthwhile to bring one, just in case something happened to the tent."

Nepeta smiled. A few days of him sleeping rough was a small victory for the wild.

Equius put the cloak back in his bag and smiled. Having her sleep in a proper shelter was a small victory for civilisation. "Well then," he said. "I think that is everything. I must leave now if I am to make any progress tonight."

"I'll take you to the edge of the furest."

They left the tent. Equius took one last look around the campsite while Nepeta checked her racks and fires to make sure they'd be okay while she was gone. That done, they walked into the trees and found the trail they'd blazed coming in. The forest didn't seem nearly as menacing to Equius as it had the first night; the trees looked almost friendly, and the noises were familiar and comforting. They walked in silence until the boughs thinned out and the undergrowth turned into grass. Eventually, there were more trees behind them than ahead, and then there were none ahead except for a few lonesome scrubby ones out on the plains.

"I guess we're here," Nepeta said.

"It appears so. Well then."

"Well then."

"I must go."

"I need to get back to camp."

Neither of them moved. Equius cleared his throat. "Are you...?"

With a sob, Nepeta cannoned into him, throwing her arms around him and pressing her cheek up against his chest. A tear rolled down her cheek and she hiccoughed out "I'll miss you."

With the gentleness he'd come to expect of his own body when he held her, Equius pulled her into a hug. He crouched so he could kiss the top of her head, and rubbed her horn the way she liked. There was a hitch in his voice as he said "I will miss you too, Nepeta. But I will be back soon. I promise. And I shall bring you a new tablet, so we can talk online again. We need never be parted. It is clear that you need me."

She sniffled. "As much as you need me."

"Yes," he admitted.

They joined in one last kiss, becoming so absorbed in each other that the wind sighing through the trees went still and all the night creatures found other places to howl their howls. Equius stroked Nepeta's cheek, turned and walked away, never once looking back. Nepeta watched him dwindle into an insignificant dot on the horizon, then she too turned and walked back into the forest.

***

Alternia is a harsh world. If you leave your hive in the night time you have to keep your ears open and your weapons handy, and be ready to kill any number of monstrosities that want to make you their next meal. In wilder regions the beasts can drive off any other competition, transforming kilometres upon kilometres into their own private hunting grounds.

Trolls are cleverer and more resourceful than beasts. Some have the strength to fight them with no weapons at all. Others have the agility and speed to leap and dodge around them, inflicting death with a hundred minor wounds. Equius and Nepeta are among these. When the moons come out, they walk without fear, because they know that together, they are unbeatable.

Trolls don't have a word for love, but they have something that, if you look at in the right way, seems an awful lot like it.

**Author's Note:**

> It's been far too long in the making, but hopefully you just read and enjoyed my latest story! Done at the request of a lovely tumblrite, so all thanks to her. I intened to do a lot more fics in 2014, so follow me at geistygeist.tumblr.com for updates and other junk.


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